Resale Market Hit NEW LOW

Only about 7,400 and 7,600 homes were sold in the secondary market in 2008, according to an international real estate consultancy CBRE. The latest figure pales in comparison with the 20,985 private resale deals in 2007. Likewise, sub–sale deals also fell from the height of 4,863 units in 2007 to between 1,600 and 1,650 units last year. In the primary home sale market, only 4,287 new home units were sold last year – not even a third of the record 14,811 private home units that were sold during the property bull–run in 2007. A miserable 131 new private homes were sold in December 208, down from 193 in November. Indeed, 2008 was the worst year for new sales in Singapore since 1990. A total of 6,114 units were launched by the developers in 2008, down 56% from a record 14,016 a year ago. The 2008 figure was the lowest in four years.